Nariyal Barfi / Fresh Coconut Fudge

Fresh Coconut Fudge

Coconut (Srifal in Sanskrit- God's fruit) plays vital role in all pooja rituals in  India. Coconuts and festivities go hand in hand and the sweets made from them are very auspicious and generally offered as Bhog or Prasadam. Coconut barfi is one such traditional and classic Indian sweet prepared during Diwali , Ganesh chaturthi and Raksha Bandhan festivals.

A very handy recipe and goes well for kids snacks box or just to satisfy some sweet carvings. This Barfi can also be taken during Vrat or fast  and the best thing about it is that it has a long refrigerated shelf life.

Ingredients for Coconut Barfi:

• Freshly scraped coconut 2 cups
• Sugar 1 3/4 cup
• fresh cream 3/4 cup
• Rose essence ( few drops)
• Strawberry juice / beetroot Juice/ rose colour ( 2 drops)

Directions :

1. Heat wok on medium heat. Add freshly scraped coconut, sugar, fresh cream and cook, stirring continuously for 15 minutes or till the mixture becomes dry( leave sides).
2. Remove from heat, add rose essence and 2 drops of Strawberry or beetroot juice. Mix well. Pour the mixture immediately on a ghee greased thali. Tap the mixture with greased spatula to flatten and spread evenly on the plate.
3. When it cools , cut into diamond or square shape with a knife .

Notes :

• Use a coconut scrapper to scrape the coconut and take care not to scrape brown skin for better look and texture.
• The above quantity of ingredients yield 12-15 large diamond shaped and some 16-18 small square shaped barfis , though the number varies according to the thickness also.
• center of plate will give the perfect edged barfis , sides will give broken edges or irregular shaped fudge.
• Time factor plays important role while putting the mixture off flame. If the mixture remains wet barfi wont come out, and if mixture becomes too dry the texture will spoil. but do not panic ..in both cases the mixture wont go waste..Perfectly shaped and textured barfi will come out with practice..in case you end up plating a too wet mixture you can bind the mixture and roll into ladoos and in case the mixture goes too dry, collect it again and put in a pan add few drops of milk and put on the gas. the mixture melts again and now you can plate it.( in this case colour will not be as fresh as for the first time )
• If you wish to have a white barfi , add cardamom powder for flavours and garnish with finely chopped almonds.
• You can give any colour to your barfi, but try colouring food with natural colours , like you can add saffron strands soaked in milk for saffron colour barfi, Few drops of spinach juice for green colour and so on.